NSF Partners With Homeyer Consulting to Prevent Legionella in Healthcare Facilities

ANN ARBOR, Mich.– Global public health and safety organization NSF is partnering with Homeyer Consulting Services, Inc. to provide healthcare facilities with specialized water systems management services to control Legionella and other waterborne pathogens.

The partnership will help hospitals and other healthcare facilities better manage their water systems, meet government requirements and protect patients from waterborne illnesses such as Legionnaires’ disease.

The collaboration combines NSF’s expertise in scientific research, regulatory compliance and public health standards with Homeyer Consulting’s experience in the engineering and technical aspects of managing industrial and commercial water systems.

The partnership will support hospitals, long-term care facilities and other healthcare facilities in meeting a U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirement to reduce the risk of the potentially deadly Legionella bacteria and other pathogens in their water systems. The federal mandate applies to more than 20,000 healthcare facilities.

Hospital water systems are complex, touching everything from massive cooling towers to tiny medical devices, and the partnership provides the healthcare industry with all-encompassing services to identify, control, monitor and verify that waterborne pathogen risks are being managed.

“The bottom line is that Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks are almost completely preventable,” said Christopher Boyd, General Manager of NSF’s Building Water Health Program in North America. “There is absolutely no question that we understand where the risks in water systems are and how to develop effective strategies to prevent outbreaks from occurring. By pairing a leading consulting firm for facility water management with a global organization that’s laser-focused on health and safety in hospitals and healthcare facilities, we can provide a comprehensive suite of services to guard against these outbreaks.”

Robert Homeyer, President of Homeyer Consulting, noted that his privately held company is the nation’s largest independent industrial water consulting firm. Founded in 1982, Homeyer Consulting advises more than 6,500 sites worldwide, has written more than 1,000 water management plans and oversees more than $150 million in water treatment contacts.

“By partnering with NSF in healthcare we can bring a whole new dimension to our portfolio of products,” Homeyer said. “As a biochemist and pharmacist, I respect the work NSF has done in health and safety. By combining our vast experience in treated water systems and utility waters with NSF’s broad health- and safety-related work, we can offer an unparalleled water management plan to our clients.”

NSF, an independent organization founded in 1944, is developing the first standard to comprehensively address Legionella and other waterborne pathogens, as well as chemical and physical hazards, in building water systems. The standard, NSF 444: Prevention of Injury and Disease Associated with Building Water Systems, is being developed in collaboration with more than 100 industry, academic and healthcare experts. The standard is expected to be finalized and published in 2018.

NSF is also a founding member of the Healthcare Infections Transmission System (HITS) Consortium, which works to reduce infections in healthcare settings from bacteria-transmission systems including air and water.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Legionnaires’ disease – a severe lung infection contracted by breathing in water droplets containing Legionella – kills 25 percent of people who get it from a healthcare facility. Yet 90 percent of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks can be prevented with more effective water management, the CDC said in a recent report.

Editor’s Note: For media interviews, please contact Thomas Frey, APR at media@nsf.org or +1 734.214.6242.

NSF is an independent, global organization that writes standards, and tests and certifies products for the water, food, health sciences and consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects and protect the environment. Founded in 1944, NSF is committed to protecting human health and safety worldwide. With operations in more than 175 countries, NSF is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center on Food Safety, Water Quality and Indoor Environment.

NSF provides risk assessments, testing, inspection and certification services for the water industry from source to tap. NSF led the development of the American National Standards for all materials and products that treat or come in contact with drinking water to help protect public health and the environment and minimize adverse health effects. In 1990, the U.S. EPA replaced its own drinking water product advisory program with these NSF standards.